With the weather teetering between 20 and 50 degrees and tons of snow here in Denver, I thought it be nice to throw it back to the my much warmer trip to northern California over the summer. It was my first time visiting the state, not to mention the my first time to the west coast, and I was instantly in awe by San Francisco, the scenic views, Pacific Coast Highway, and WHALES! I still can’t believe I saw whales just out in ocean roaming freely and giving me (and the hoard of other people stopped in amazement) a nice little show.
From the moment we flew into the city (on my favorite airline, Southwest, obviously) I couldn’t believe where we actually were. We did so much throughout our trip and all in just four days! We made San Jose our home base during the stay, which made traveling between San Francisco and down Pacific Coast Highway super easy. On our first day, we took a drive down PCH to travel down the “17-Mile Drive” and check out the most picturesque little town of Carmel. It was probably my favorite part of the trip. We saw whales, sea lions, and admired the views from the stops along the drive. (Weird thing we noticed: all of the squirrels we encountered were extremely fat. Like, they were mutant squirrels. See picture below for reference)
Over the next few days, we saw the red woods, walked on the Golden Gate Bridge after hiking through the park to it, walked throughout the city, experienced all the quintessential touristy things to do, and took a day trip out to Napa Valley for some awesome wine, We also visited Alcatraz, which was SO cool! I highly suggest doing the audio tour when you go there. The narration makes the experience seem that much more real. Another highlight of our trip was taking the hike to the park that over looks the Golden Gate Bridge. We did it with friends who live there and met up with more to end our hike with a picnic. We had drinks, tons of food, music, good company and all with the GGB as our backdrop. It was the best last day in San Francisco I could ever imagine.
I was seriously in amazement the entire time we were there and, basically, the only adequate way to describe my trip is “a travelers’ paradise”!
Check out below for pics from my travels!
With love,
Steph
therestephgoes.com 